Born in Copenhagen on 7th July 1958, Michala Petri began playing the recorder at the age of three and was first heard on Danish Radio when she was five. Her debut as concerto soloist took place at the Tivoli Concert Hall in 1969, the year in which she began her studies with Professor Ferdinand Conrad at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. Since then she has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, Israel, Australia and the Far East, performing with musicians such as Heinz Holliger, Pinchas Zukerman, James Galway, Salvatore Accardo, Maurice André, Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer, Christopher Hogwood and Claudio Abbado and as soloist with many of the world’s major chamber and symphony orchestras.
Michala Petri has received the highest praise for her astonishing virtuosity in a repertoire ranging from the early baroque to contemporary works, many of them written especially for her.
For many years Michala has enjoyed working with guitarists including Göran Söllsher, Kazuhito Yamashita and Manuel Barrueco. In 1992 she formed a duo with her husband, Danish guitarist and lute player Lars Hannibal, with whom she tours all over the world.
Michala Petri was an exclusive recording artist for Philips from 1979 to 1987 and until 2005 for BMG/RCA Red Seal. In 1997 she received the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for her exciting collaboration with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi performing Vivaldi Flute Concertos. In 2002 she was awarded a second Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for her album Kreisler Inspirations with Lars Hannibal. Other recordings include Scandinavian popular music with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, works by Grieg and contemporary concertos written for her, both with the English Chamber Orchestra; two albums of Bach and Handel Sonatas with Keith Jarrett; and several albums of Baroque Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Saint-Saëns’ Rondo Capriccioso with Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra was released in 2005 on EMI. Her album Los Angeles Street Concerto on DaCapo, with music by Danish composer Thomas Koppel, was voted Best Classical CD of the Year in Denmark in 2006.
Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal now have their own label OUR Recordings and have released Siesta, inspired by Latin American and Mediterranean music, Movements, with recorder concertos written for her, nominated for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, and most recently Mozart’s Flute Quartets, where she is joined by a trio from Kremerata Baltica. All have received wide critical praise.
In 1995 the Queen of Denmark honoured Michala with The Order of the Knight of Dannebrog. In 1997 she was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize and in 1998 received the Wilhelm Hansen Music Prize as well as the H.C. Lumbye Prize for her achievement in bringing classical music to a wider audience. In 2000 Michala Petri received the highly prestigious Sonning Music Prize, previously awarded among others to Stravinsky, Bernstein, Britten, Shostakovich, Menuhin and Brendel.
www.michalapetri.com
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